Owners and executives routinely point to the Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks as proof hockey can succeed in the Sun Belt. Others, like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes, have shown that profitability is possible with a Stanley Cup-winning team. But the Atlanta Thrashers, Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators have struggled, and the Phoenix Coyotes’ bankruptcy case has shown how damaging runaway costs and low paid attendance can be.

Through the years, attendance for the majority of Sun Belt teams has equaled or outperformed the league’s average attendance. Only four teams — Phoenix, Florida, Atlanta and Nashville — have underperformed the league average in the last three seasons. Two of the remaining five — Carolina and Anaheim — have been on par with the league average of 17,000, and three — Tampa Bay, Dallas and San Jose — have outperformed the average.

But the relative success of Sun Belt teams at the gate over that period has been offset by local television struggles. In 2008-09, seven Sun Belt teams averaged 12,942 households per game, less than half the league average of 33,500 households per game. Four of the teams — Florida, Atlanta, Phoenix and Tampa Bay — averaged between 4,000 and 9,000 households per game. Only San Jose topped the league average with 33,600 households per game. (Ratings for Carolina and Nashville were not available.)

Gate revenue can account for as much as 90 percent of a Sun Belt team’s revenue, and each team tries to drive ticket sales through a mix of long-term initiatives and short-term creativity.

The challenges team executives face are unique and vary from market to market. In Florida, with its warm weather, the team competes against a variety of outside entertainment options. In Carolina, with its developing business community, the team tries to appeal to a young and emerging corporate crowd. In Nashville, the team competes against the established sports of college football and NASCAR. In Atlanta, with its transient population, the team works to convert fans of teams in other markets.

Thrashers fan Jere Smith sums up the challenge in Atlanta this way. His son plays on a youth hockey team coached by a man from Edmonton.

“I’ve never seen him not wearing an Oilers T-shirt,” said Smith, a 42-year-old attorney born in Florida. “Somehow we have to make that Edmonton guy a Thrashers guy.”

As Anaheim Ducks Chief Operating Officer Tim Ryan said, “There is not one or 10 silver bullets in a nontraditional market.”

As a result, teams have developed a variety of strategies to tackle those challenges head-on. The Ducks, who have played to 96 percent capacity at the Honda Center and averaged 16,539 spectators a game, have emphasized long-term fan development efforts designed to raise the profile of hockey and their team in Southern California.

In 2009, the team’s foundation and its owner’s foundation spent $2 million to launch “The Science of Hockey” exhibit at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, Calif. The exhibit, which is supported by the NHL and USA Hockey, teaches visitors about everything from how to strike a puck to how a Zamboni resurfaces an ice rink. The Ducks also are in the midst of a major rink development effort to make youth hockey more available in the area. The efforts are all designed to pay off years in the future, Ryan said.

This year, the Florida Panthers developed the “Florida Panthers Locker Room” program. Seven sections of the team’s lower bowl have been named after players and redesigned to look like the interior of the team’s locker room. If fans buy season tickets in a section, they get a jersey from the player the section is named after, a meet-and-greet with the player and a birthday card from him. It was the centerpiece of the team’s sales effort all summer.

“Even though we’re becoming a more mature brand, there are people moving into the marketplace every day who have never been to a hockey game,” Panthers President Michael Yormark said. “You have to constantly incentivize people to sample the product.”

But all the marketing programs in the world don’t compare to winning. Sun Belt executives say making the playoffs in their markets is more important than in traditional hockey markets. Failure to make the playoffs in Florida and Phoenix has been blamed for attendance declines, while success on the ice has been key to recent attendance increases in San Jose and Anaheim.

“It’s not about the marketing programs,” Lightning owner Oren Koules said. “It’s not about the gimmicks. It’s about the performance on the ice. When a team makes the playoffs a couple of years in a row, then you’ll know what the market is.”

Today, Sun Belt owners and executives hope the scrutiny they have faced during the summer’s Coyotes trial passes in much the same way the scrutiny Canadian franchises faced faded when the Canadian dollar regained its strength. All of them say the future looks bright for their markets and point to population growth and businesses relocating to their areas as justification.

“Hockey’s as good as the work you put into it,” Coyotes President Doug Moss said. “Overall, we believe it’s a great product. If you have a great product and you maintain the great product, the future can be very bright.”

Just how bright hockey’s future will be in the Sun Belt remains unknown. To date, it has been successful in some markets but unsuccessful in others, and beneficial to the NHL in some ways but damaging to it in others.

As former Dallas Stars President Jim Lites puts it: “You can’t call it an abject failure, but you can’t call it a complete success. It’s a mixed bag.”